Friday, October 31, 2008

But Hospital staff are good hard working and generally friendly people. I'm stuck in hospital on a steroid drip and being injected with unknowns, and taking pills all week due to the fact that I have been diagnosed (finally after 3 years of suffering) with Ucerative Colitis, and the symptoms are apparently bad enough to merit this.

I'm glad that I finally have had my conditions diagnosed, and that I have a good team of doctors trying to help me. I've been put on immunosuppresants which will hopefully calm everything down and make me feel a bit better by christmas. Hopefully they will work, and although I will be more prone to infection etc, I should get my energy back after all this time, and loose the symptoms (fingers crossed!). If not, then last option really is surgery (removal of entire large intestine), as you can imagine, I'm not so keen on that idea.

I'm just glad that I have internet in my hospital room so that I can keep myself busy. Otherwise I would be going insane!

I would also like to give my best wishes to our good friend Jirka, and especially his son, who is critically ill right now, far worse than me. I'm sure that I can say on behalf of all the Banshee crew out there that we are wishing you well.

Please people, never ever take your health for granted! If you are able, then get out there and make the most of your health and enjoy it. Ride your bikes, explore new places, and do it with a smile on your face!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ok well I've started to build my bike up...I haven't got all the parts that i truly want to make my dream bike as they're not available yet.Such as...Manitou Dorado, the Cook bros Opium wheelsets and the Double Barrel is still on its way, but...I still want to ride the the thing and I'm happy with the Alex wheels and Boxxer fork... Basically I want the final build to be around 10K MSRP and under 36lbs but still be a full on DH race spec'd bike.Jason from Sicklines as well is challenging me as his builds gonna be pretty sweet too.Final parts will be Formula Ones, Gamut P40, WTB Dissents, WTB silvarado saddle, and haven't decided on drivetrain yet.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Jay,Your were great to take the time to give alot of good advise about Banshee bikes so thought I'd let you know how it worked out for me.Hope the pictures sent OK. I couldn't seem to post on the blog so here goes.

Banshee Scythe spotted at the top of Triple Crown trail browsing on power bar crumbs. I approached quietly from downwind so as not to startle the beast, grabbed the bars and threw a leg over before she bolted.

Well, the afternoon began pedaling the Scythe to the top to check out my new dual ring setup. A single ring 1:1 gear ratio on this rig was OK climbing Fromme but had me doing the hike-a-bike ascent half the way on Burke. I already knew from ascending on a single DH ring she was a good climber even with the big fork, so I reduced the shock SPV pressure to 80 PSI and headed up on a 22/32 175mm crank set. All is good and the dual setup paid off despite the extra weight with insignificant energy wasted. Increasing the SPV to 100 PSI should tweak it in to take care of a minor bounce going over the larger rocks. I’m now a firm believer in the fine job the Banshee crew did perfecting the geometry on this simple suspension design for “Shore” freeride trails. At the top I let the Scythe rest while I put on my pads, but when ready to go there was a noticeable transformation in the Scythe’s personality from a stable pack horse to something between a mountain lion and a deer.

It didn’t take long on the decent to appreciate the trail taming powers of this beast. The stiff single pivot chain stay connection from the main frame to the rear axle had it leaping off any lip like a deer. I read reviews about the tendency to accelerate out of a turn and experienced this when I had to adjust my old ride position a bit forward when the Scythe almost left me behind after getting back too far on one turn. Kind of the same feeling you get cranking turns riding a high performance giant slalom ski. Stay centered and you’ll love it, but slight weighting on the rear and it’ll leave you behind. On a couple of familiar hucks to flat I was expecting the usual impacts but they never came and it touched down like a big cat the balance was so good.

I’m stoked, because this ride just upped my ability and I feel I can satisfy the need to feed my soul with adrenalin and keep my surgeon happy I’m riding safely at the same time.

It been fun researching the perfect new ride but I’m relieved to abandon all the marketing hype out there for so many new complicated suspensions and just get back to enjoying the ride on my new trail soul mate.Mike MacNeil

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I got my banshee amp a few months ago, and put all my parts on it within an hour of getting it. Even though I had a separated shoulder at the time, so I couldn`t even ride it for 3 more weeks!

But it was fun to look at it and watch how much fun my girl friend was having on it. The complete build was sooo light i was shocked, the lightest bike i have ever owned... at a shockingly sweet weight of 27lbs on the dot.

Dump 3

Three weeks later i got on the bike and started to shred.... You know how it takes a while to get used to a new bike normally, not in this case within 5 minutes I was better than ever!

Super Seater

I was throwing down flip no footed cans, flip whips and crazy other tricks with no problems! This bike gives you so much confidence when you get on it, with perfect geometry and a very low weight it feels so easy to move around on and off the ground. I love love love the Banshee Amp! Braaap.....Braaaap...

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Update 2:So the test has been down for a bit as i've been busy and haven't had time to pull it out of the machine. Today I got to it and here are the results:1 mashed finger - i tore it open trying to torque out a axle bolt1 stripped axle bolt8 bushings in pretty decent shape and keeping their tolerances1 NO flexy frame2 Aluminum axles that again look almost brand new1 Stainless steel main pivot axle that almost looks like new1 Al axle i have no idea what it looks like cause i can't get it off right now.

So I got alot of questions about the dust on the bolts. Here's a video of whats happening.Basically the Inside Diameter ID of the Pin is much larger then the OD of the bolt thus its able to slide back and forth and the movement is acting to file down the ID of the pin making the dust.If i was not such a hack i would have pressed out the bushings and put in ones that fit properly, but since i am a hack thats why there is that movement. Its also the source of the clicking in the video and all the pivots are running smooth and silent... I suppose on the next 300K i'll change out the pin so you can see how quite it can run.

Rest assured that when you get the shock and frame the fit will be proper... This is not a frame specific thing... any frame with suspension could have this issue if you use the wrong fitting spacers/pins so let this be an example to demonstrate the purpose of using proper fitting stuff.

Update:Ok so the leverage over the shock is very little and the coil we have 400# is for a guy 220+ lbs so its getting worked. At 390K cycles i went downstairs to check it and this is what i found:Looks like we toasti-ode a 12.9 Gr shock bolt. I'll check the pivots now since i have to change pins and a bolt

Sunday, October 19, 2008

After 3 days of running the Legend pivots 24hours a day here are the results.- 1 blown shock- 2 worn out shock pins- 4 Legend axles that still look brand new- 8 bushings that don't look new but look pretty damn good- No perceptible play in any of the pivots

In fact if anything after 300K the suspension feels like its just broken in and is running buttery smooth. The force was being measured as well on the pivots and looking at the graph there was no real difference from the start of the test to this point ... basically it means that the suspension is as tight as it was when it started.

The shock bushings didn't fit tight against the bolt and had a little bit of movement which wore them down and the result is all the dust you can see in the pics... this dust is from the shock pins.Rather then change them i'm gonna stick them back in the machine and destroy them hahaha.

Also the shock has got oil all over it... clearly blown. Figured as much as you could have cooked an egg on it until we were forced to put a fan on it to cool it down. Seriously we worked that byatch hard.So now all we need to do is I guess run to 600K and then pull it apart again. No parts have been changed but I did clean the parts and apply new grease because it looked like the grease was also done.

We figure 300K represents riding whistler for a month, 5X per week at 10 runs [garbonzo to the GLC per day

Rachel and myself did a short loop here in Glenwood Springs this morning on our Runes. I must say that a xc shox would definitely make the uphill nicer.... oh but how fast you can go down! Myself i took the fastest section full steam and ended up going off the trail. Thirty to zero on my forearm and shoulder breaking a tree. This being my first full suspension ever i am on cloud nine going down hill. AMAZING ride! If you are in the Glenwood area come by The Gear Exchange to check out the large line of demos including the sycth, wildcard, pyre and rune.

Qusyairi (riding a Banshee RUNE) had a dramatic qualifying run where his chainguide disintegrated, jamming up his chain. He ran and pumped his way down to the finish line just nano seconds away from being disqualified form the finals.He then clawed his way up to 4th place in the Men's Junior finals in the end!

picture courtesy of Mahazam

Our Elite rider Rizal Hon is currently out of action due to his niggling 3 fractured ribs..we'll be hearing more from him soon...when he gets his Legend...

Friday, October 17, 2008

Couple more to look at. I'll get the red one up soon. Its not studio quality... i'm using a little point and shoot so the shoots are a little dark.

Well here you go.doing some testing and got some of the links back... i didn't take a pic of the black links [you know what they look like]Should have the Australian Banshee/XXIV national team bikes to show you soon as they're being painted now.

Hope everything turns out ok with the graphic look i was going for. I'm hoping they really stand out. I'll know in a few hours i guess.

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